Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 87629 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87629 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Damn. She’s right. I did make that promise.
“I needed to see you. Be with you.” True enough.
But that’s not enough for Mandy, nor do I delude myself into thinking it is.
She lifts her eyebrows. “Why?”
“Because you… You’re my safe place, Mandy.”
The blue-gray of her eyes soften then, and I know she won’t push me. Thank God, because I’m not ready to tell her what happened with Blossom. As much as I want Mandy to run from this club, I don’t want her to run from me.
We’re here now. We’re here because she wants to be, or at least she thinks she wants to be. “What do you want to do?”
There. The ball’s in her court. She has to decide whether she truly wants to stay here.
I expect her to want to leave any minute now.
Instead, she pulls me over to the bar. “Two mineral waters, please,” she says to the bartender on duty.
Good girl. She knows she’s had enough to drink. She knows I’ve had enough to drink.
Our mineral waters slide before us, and I take a long sip.
Damn, I’m dehydrated. I feel like my blood is dried up into powder.
Mandy drinks hers slowly and glances around the club. “Tell me about this place,” she says.
“You know about it. You’ve been here before.”
“I have, but you can tell me anything. I’m bound by my nondisclosure agreement. How long have you been coming here, Jackson?”
“A couple of years.”
“And you said it’s by invitation only?”
“Yeah.”
“Who invited you?”
What she’s really asking is whoever it was, how did they know I’d like this place? She’s asking about me. Why I enjoy this place.
“Does it matter?” I ask.
She takes another sip of her soda water. “No, I guess it really doesn’t.”
“What you’re really asking is why I like to come here.”
“No, I’m not asking that. I think I’ve already figured that out.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Oh, you have?”
“This place is very freeing, Jackson. Everyone here is doing something they want to do without fear of being judged for it.”
I’m taken aback. Wow. She does get it. That’s not all of it, but it’s part of it.
Is my Mandy Cake seriously not so pure and innocent as snow?
“Am I right?”
Part of me wants to take her in my arms, tell her yes, she’s right, and I’m so happy she understands.
Part of me wants to yell at her. Tell her she’s wrong and that she doesn’t belong here. Part of me wants to protect her from this world.
But why would I want to protect her from this world? This is my world. A world I enjoy. It’s part of what makes me me.
Except…Mandy being here…
It led to what happened with Blossom. Led to me losing control, and that can never happen again.
Which means…
Mandy can’t be here.
“Listen, Mandy,” I say. “This place isn’t for you.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I’m saying it for a reason. The things that happen here are…”
“Dark? Sexy?” She pauses a few seconds. “Taboo?”
My God, I’m horny just hearing her say those words.
So much of me wants to take her back to a suite, tie her up, bind her, flog her skin until it’s as rosy pink as that gorgeous blush on her cheeks, and then slide between her legs and thrust inside her.
Already I know what she feels like. She’s like heaven on my cock. Paradise between her sweet legs.
I’m so fucked.
But maybe… Maybe she needs to see that side of me.
Maybe that’s what will ultimately show her that this place isn’t for her. She’ll want to leave, and we can reclaim our friendship.
I set my glass on the bar and stand, meet her lovely silver gaze. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Amanda
Jackson’s eyes.
That luscious combination of green and gold and amber brown.
Even in the dim light of the club, they sparkle. They call to me.
And right now? They’re searing into me as if he can see through my body straight into my soul.
Fear slashes through me—but not in a bad way.
And I wonder… Is this why I’ve always been in love with Jack? Is this why no other man would do it for me? Because of Jack, because of who he is? Is it that I always knew, on some level, that he had a kinkier side?
Does that mean I have a kinky side, too?
I can’t deny that this place intrigues me, turns me on, gets me to a state of arousal I never knew existed. But is that the place? Or is it Jack? Or both?
Jack takes my hand, and I relish the feeling of my fingers entwined with his. We’ve held hands before. We’re best friends, of course. But tonight it feels different. I feel overshadowed by him, by his magnificence, yet I feel more myself than I have in a long time.
He lets me lead. He keeps his hand on my back, and he guides me, but he lets me lead.